Infant s garment



April 20, 1954 v T 2,675,805

' .INFANT'S GARMENT Filed March 17, 1953 IN V EN TOR.

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Patented Apr. 20, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE INFANTS GARMENT Euna Belle Trimble, Niles, Mich.

Application March 17, 1953, Serial No. 342,869

4 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in infants garments, and more particularly to a garment which serves as a combination diaper and training pants.

The primary object of the invention is to provide an infants garment of this character so constructed that it is easy to apply, simple in construction, easy to launder, and fits infants and small children through a substantial range of their growth.

A further object is to provide a device of this character having fastening means mounted thereon to facilitate ready and convenient donnin or application of the garment, arranged so as to permit the garment to vary in size as applied, which garment has elasticity at the portions thereof passing around the waist and the legs to accommodate a snug fit of the garment upon all infants in a wide range of sizes and including sizes intermediate those for which the location of the fastening means are particularly arranged or selected.

A further object is to provide a garment of this character constituting a sheath member and a padding member wherein both parts are secured together at only a limited extent thereof and each is adapted to be extended to substantially flat form or shape to facilitate washing thereof, said sheath member being configured to fit around the torso in a manner to define waist and leg openings and having elastic material secured to the margins thereof which define parts at least of said leg and waist openings when the garment is assembled, said padding being so arranged as to accommodate folding thereof within the confines of the sheath in a position to be held snug by the sheath and of substantially uniform thickness throughout, whereby bunching is avoided, said elastic serving in part to facilitate the flat sub stantially uniform thickness positioning of the pad within the sheath.

Other objects will be apparent from the following specification.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a perspective view of the device in its assembled form;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the device in its extended form; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the device taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2, and illustrating the material folded fiat into pad-defining form.

Referring to the drawing which illustrates the preferred embodiment of the invention, the numeral H! designates a sheath member, and the numeral l2 designates a pad memben The sheath member may be formed of any fabric found suitable. For this purpose I prefer to employ fabric having at least a limited amount of stretch or elasticity resulting from the weave thereof, and also being of comparatively loose weave so that it has substantial moisture absorbing properties. Although a fabric having these properties is preferred, it will be understood that neither of these requirements are essential, and that, instead of a woven cloth fabric, the sheath may be formed from flexible sheet material such as synthetic resin sheet material, or may be formed from material including laminations of plastic sheet material and fabric, or from fabric woven in part from fibers of synthetic resin material. Knit fabrics are found to be well suited for use in the sheath because of their elasticity and absorbency. The pad I2 preferably comprises a sheet of fabric, such as muslin or other cloth which is loosely woven to possess substantial absorbency.

The sheath It is of the shape best seen in Fig. 2, having side margins at which hems l4 are inturned, the sam being of substantial width and extending substantially continuously along the length of each side. The ends of the sheath have central incurved marginal portions 16 substantially equal whose length is approximately onehalf the length of each end edge, at each of which a marginal hem [8 extends. The remaining portions of the margin at each end are defined by hems 2B which extend from the opposite ends of the hems [8 to the outer edges of the sheath. The hems I l, i8 and 25 all are preferably folded in the same direction so that one face or surface of the sheath is substantially smooth, said surface preferably being the surface which is located outermost when the garment is worn.

Elongated strips 22 of elastic fabric are secured at the opposite side margins of the sheath, preferably midwidth of the hem it, and extend for the major portion of the length of the hem. The elastic strips are sewn to the sheath at the hem, and the side margins of the sheath are gathered as the elastic strips are sewn to the sheath at the hem so that the length of each side margin of the sheath is substantially less than the length of the margin of the blank from which the sheath is formed. The amount of gather will preferably be such that the extensibility of the hems hi lengthwise thereof will be of the same order as the extensibility of the elastic strips 22. An elastic strip 2d extends lengthwise of each hem It at one incurved end margin of the sheath. It will be understood, of course, that similar elastic strips 24 preferably much greater than and is substantially a number of multiples of the spacing between the incurved edges It. The pad member if is stitched or sewn at 26 at one end thereof to the sheath it substantially centrally between the side hems It and adjacent to one of the end hems l8. The member I2 is substantially longitudinally centered with respect to the incurved edges I e, as seen in Fig. 2. The pad member 12 is adapted to be folded crosswise at a plurality of points thereof designated by dotted lines 28 so as to form a multiple thickness pad member lying completely within the confines of the sheath, that is, a pad whose width is equal to the width of the sheet l2 and whose length is equal to the spacing between the left-hand edge of the sheet I 2, as seen in Fig. 2, and the left-hand fold line 28 of Fig. 2. The arrangement in this respect is seen in Fig. 3 from which it will be observed that the opposite ends of the multiple thickness pad lie adjacent to the hems I 8.

A plurality of detachable securing members are secured to the sheath at the margins thereof at and adjacent the various corners. While snap fasteners are preferred, any other type of separable fastener may be employed, such as hooks and eyes, buttons and buttonholes, etc. A fastener member 30 will preferably be located at each corner of the sheath; a fastener 32 will preferably be located at the inner end of each hem and a fastener 34 will preferably be mounted on each hem member l4 adjacent to but spaced from the fastener 30. The fastener members 36 on opposite sides of the pad member l2 are complementary. Thus, as seen in Fig. 2, the fasteners 3i! in the upper right-hand corner will be complementary and will mate with the fasteners at the lower right-hand corner, and the fastener at the upper left-hand corner will be complementary and mate with the fastener at the lower left-hand corner. The fasteners 34 will be of the same type as the adjacent fastener member 38 thereof. The fastener members 32 at opposite sides of the pad [2 will mate and, for purpose of convenience, they will preferably be the same as the fastener 30 adjacent thereto, although the latter is not required and, if the upper right-hand fastener 39 is a male fastener, the adjacent fastener element 32 may be a female fastener if desired.

In the use of the device the pad member I2 is folded along the fold lines 28 to produce a multiple thickness pad, as illustrated in Fig. 3, positioned centrally of the sheath and preferably confined entirely within the outline of the sheath. The infant is laid upon the sheath when thus extended in a position at right angles to the direction in which the pad member 12 is shown extended in Fig. 2. One of the side marginal portions of the device is passed between the infants legs in such a manner that the hems l4 lie at waist level and form waist hems. The snap fasteners or other securing means are then engaged in any selected manner or adjustment 4 which will provide a snug fit of the waist hems l4 around the infants body. The fasteners 32 will also be fastened, thus defining leg openings outlined by the hems l8 and the elastic bands 24. A snug fit of the garment results so that excessive bagginess is avoided. This snug fit serves to hold the pad material in contact with the garment and substantially prevents it from crumpling or wadding at localized areas.

It will be apparent that the construction afl'ords a substantial range of size for the garment. Thus, at the waist the fasteners 30 may engage each other, or a fastener 30 at one edge may engage a fastener 34 at the opposite edge. A number of steps or gradations of waist size are thus made possible. The dimension of the leg usually does not vary as greatly as the dimension of the waist, and adjustment of the size of this opening is therefore not customarily required and the elasticity of the strips 24 will be sufficient to permit the leg openings to accommodate or adjust themselves to fit closely about the legs. The device, therefore, can fit as snugly as a pair of training pants and, even when mounted upon a small infant, avoids objectionable bulkiness of appearance.

The device is removed by simply releasing the separable fasteners and removing the garment from the body. When a soiled garment is to be washed, the pad member [2 can be extended fully to substantially single thickness and fully effective washing can be accomplished. Note in this connection that, when extended for purposes of washing, the garment is limited substantially throughout to thicknesses not greatly exceeding double thickness. The only substantial exceptions in this are that the thickness at each elastic strip is greater than double thickness, as are the thickness of the corners at which the hems l4 and 2G lap, and as at that portion at which the pad member l2 laps the right-hand incurved hem t8, as viewed in Fig. 2. The reduction of multiple thickness portions to a minimum is important, not only to insure effective and uniform washing, but also to minimize the time required for the garment to dry.

In addition to a snug fit of the garment and to the fact that the pad member is held at substantially uniform thickness throughout, the device possesses another advantage when worn, and that is that the pad member is confined. The elastic passing around the waist and the legs provides a snug fit of the garment at these points and, even in the case of an active infant, the

pad member is prevented by this snug fit from 7 working itself outside of the sheath at the margins thereof around the leg and the waist.

When a child reaches the age at which diapers are no longer required, the garment may serve as training pants. For this purpose, the sheet 52 can be removed and the sheath worn alone. 7

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, it will be understood that changes in the construction may be made within the scope or the appended claims Without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Iclaim:

1. An infants garment" comprising a sheet constituting a sheath, and an elongated absorbent sheet secured at one margin thereof to'said first sheet and projecting from said first sheet when flat, said absorbent sheet being f-oldable to define a multiple thickness pad superimposed L upon and lying within the outline .of said first sheet, and separable fasteners secured at four spaced marginal portions of said first sheet to hold said first sheet in garment-defining shape having a waist-receiving opening and a pair of leg-receiving openings.

2. An infants garment as defined in claim 1, wherein the marginal portions of said first sheet between said fasteners are elastically extensible.

3. An inf-ants garment as defined in claim 1, wherein elastic strips are secured at gathered portions of the margins of said first sheet between said fasteners.

4. An infants garment as defined in claim 1,

6 wherein the margins of said first sheet defining said leg-receiving openings are incurved and are elastically extensible.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,353,196 Weissman Sept. 21, 1920 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 636,097 Great Britain Apr. 19, 1950 1,006,568 France Jan. 23, 1952 

